handsome donations for the use of the poor. From his correspondence at that period, we shall give here one other letter, referring the reader to the Appendix for further correspondence relating to the Famine. It is from Dr. Cullen, then President of the Irish College at Rome.

IRISH COLLEGE, March 16, 1847.

My Lord,-I beg to forward to your lordship a bill for £20, to be applied by way of charity to the relief of the poor. The person who contributed this sum-the Rt. Rev. Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Hyderabud -expressed a wish that it should be sent to your diocese.

The accounts we receive here of the state of poor Ireland are most heart-rending. Our good, holy Father the Pope feels most intensely for the afflictions of his long-tried and faithful children. He inquires about them every day. All the good Romans enter fully into the feelings of the Pope. Their sympathy is great for Ireland, and they are sending most fervent prayers to the Most High to beg of him to spare our country, and to avert the calamity which is weighing so heavily on it. Your lordship has heard before now that His Holiness contributed, last January, the munificent sum of one thousand dollars, to be applied to the relief of the poor Irish. Ere yesterday he told me that he would give as much more in a few days, out of his own slender means, and that he had also determined in the same way to supply two or three thousand dollars, which some pious ladies had collected, to be devoted to charitable purposes, and which they put at the Pope's disposal. This fact will speak volumes for the Pope's charity, and his attachment to our poor people. What a blessing of Providence to have such a man in the chair of Peter, in these times of misery and calamity! I hope that the Catholics in every part of the world will become more and more attached to their chief pastor, that they will glory in having so much virtue in so exalted a situation, and that all will vie in imitating the example of charity which has been given by the centre of unity. May we not also hope that those who shook off the paternal authority of Rome, and wandered away into the path of error, will at length open their eyes to their misery and spiritual destitution, and return to the house, and acknowledge the authority of so good a

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father? They ought to know that where true charity resides, there also true faith is to be found. With what facility would not distress be relieved, if all Christians were united in professing the same faith, and if all were obedient to the voice of the holy successor of St. Peter -if there were but one sheepfold and one pastor?

I am sorry to inform your lordship that there is great want in Italy this year. Here in Rome provisions are scarce and dear, but the charity of the rich is so great that there is no destitution and no starvation. The nobles here treat the poor with the utmost kindness; they do not think it beneath their dignity to distribute alms with their own hands, to visit the abodes of the poor, and to find out and console those who are really in need. You would be surprised to see how comfortably the very poorest people here are clad, though clothing cost at least twice as much as in Ireland. The spirit that prevails here in regard to poverty, is quite different from that which is dictated by the cold lessons of political economy. In the public establishments here for the poor, the boys and girls are draped in a most respectable manner, and their diet is very nearly the same as that which is given in colleges. They are treated as members of Jesus Christ, not as slaves or as a burden to the earth. The Pope has visited all the public establishments in Rome, and his kindness and affability to the lowest of the poor have added greatly to the affection which all classes entertain for him. I hope the poor in Ireland will unite their prayers with those of the good Romans, to obtain from God, for so good a Pontiff, a long and happy reign.

I forgot to mention that we had public prayers in Rome for Ireland. These few days back we have had a novena in the church of St. Agatha in honor of St. Patrick, to beg of him to intercede for the country which was the theatre of his labors, and where he gained that crown of glory which distinguishes him. We had the rosary each evening, an English sermon, the litanies of the saints, the prayers prescribed by the ritual in time of famine, and in the end Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament. I hope they have had public prayers in every part of Ireland, and that they will persevere in them. The calamity is so great that it is to God alone we should look for relief. I trust that his mercy will be moved by the powerful intercession of the help of Christians and the consoler of the afflicted--the most holy Virginto whom our poor were always devotedly attached. If she do not obtain temporal relief, she will certainly secure for the poor that which

is infinitely more important, the grace of dying a happy death. How many of them will pass from the miseries of this vale of tears to eternal happiness, if they put themselves under her protection!

I have the honor to remain,

Your lordship's humble servant,

PAUL CULLEN.

The continued negligence of subordinates, indifference of superiors, and insensibility of the government to the wholesale destruction of Irish life, at last inspired Dr. Maginn with that deep-seated abhorrence of English misrule, which he carried with him to the grave. In a letter of this year to Mr. Poulett Scrope, M. P., he frankly proclaims his indignation against the government. "For myself," he says, "as a Christian Bishop, living as I am, amidst scenes that must rend the heart of any having the least feeling of humanity, though attached to our Queen as much from affection as from the duty of allegiance, I don't hesitate to say to you that there is no means under heaven that I would not cheerfully resort to to redeem my people from their present misery; and sooner than allow it to continue, like the Archbishop of Milan, I would grasp the cross and the green flag of Ireland and rescue my country, or perish with its people."

His noble anger was no less aroused against the cruel, prodigal aristocracy of confiscation. Some of their number having addressed him a circular letter, asking his co-operation in a system of wholesale emigra

tion to British North America, he thus passionately replied to them:

"Employ the Irish Catholic peasant anywhere, say you, but not in Ireland. Join us in removing the carrion people from before our eyes beyond the seas, or anywhere, that we may forget the misery we created, and banish the appprehension of retributive justice which God always reserves for the tyrants and oppressors of the people, through the instrumentality of the oppressed. The murderers would wish to hide their victims, lest their mangled frames should rise in judgment against them. It will not, however, gentlemen, do. The bulk of the Irish Catholic people will stick to their native soil, were it for nothing else but to haunt you in your dreams of pleasure. Since you would not let the peasants live as Christians, you will be forced to look on their spectres-they will stick to you like the 'man of the sea on Sinbad's back;' and since you would not raise them up, they will have the gratification of bringing you down to their own level. You may shudder at the thought of being brought into association with the filth and rags of these skeletons of your own making, as Satan shrunk back when he saw the hideous forms of Sin and Death which he himself had created."

In that miserable time, not only the bodies but the souls of the people, were in imminent danger. The Pharisees, "who compass sea and land to make one proselyte," could not resist the opportunity of tempting the famished poor to swap their immortal souls for sectarian soup. In Derry as in Dingle, in Innishowen as in Achill, the Apostle of Famine was abroad, presenting his bread and butter done up in Bible leaves; offering, with the same hand, potatoes and publications. How much printed piety went with a peck of potatoes, to what extent a stone of Indian meal ought to be leavened with godly exhortation, these apostles were thoroughly

instructed. They carried with them a theological tariff, a sectarian sliding scale, by which their charities (forgive the profanation!) were measured out and regulated. Against such wolves in sheep's clothing, Dr. Maginn was constantly on the alert. In the Poor Houses, in the famished districts, in the back lanes of towns, he set watchers and traps for them. Finally, he founded throughout his Diocese "THE SOCIETY FOR THE CONSERVATION OF THE FAITH," in humble imitation of the illustrious and encyclical "Association for the Propagation of the Faith." This Society, composed of catechists, visitors, and subscribers, exercised a most salutary influence in those seasons of fearful temptation, and continued to flourish during the life-time of its founder. Whether it still exists, we are not informed.